FBI agents investigating violent crimes in more than a half-dozen major metropolitan areas will soon begin using off-the-shelf digital mapping software to uncover valuable leads that weren't evident before.

The expansion is planned in hopes of duplicating the successes of a three-year-old pilot project in the bureau's Philadelphia field office that employs commercial mapping software to glean additional information about a crime by finding and tracking potentially helpful sources in the area immediately surrounding a crime scene.

The effort, called Project Pinpoint, is based on the theory that the clues needed to solve a crime can be found within 400 yards of where it occurred, especially in the inner city, according to the agent who conceived of and pioneered the project, Special Agent Bill Shute of the Philadelphia office.